Coach Bill Nichol experimented with fielding a mixed team of regular starters and fringe players and they soon realised they were playing against a fired-up Sefton team keen to get a win at all costs.

This challenge was a particularly good test for the fringe players who soon realised the forward battle was not for the faint hearted.

Sefton initially got the upper hand and looked to be winning the battle in the set pieces and it was from a lineout that the Sefton No8 made a strong run for the try-line and avoided some desperate tackles to put the visitors ahead.

Southport’s forwards started to get parity in the set pieces and after constant pressure Southport No8 Joe Ryan powered over to level the score. Billy Nichol converted the kick that put the home team 7-5 ahead at half time.

Nine changes were made at half-time, in-keeping with mixing up the team and using all the available players.

Southport forwards started winning the contact area and this created a good platform for the back line that had pace in abundance. It was the impressive outside-centre Danny Fairhurst who got the first of three second-half tries. Owen Jones and Fairhurst scored the other two tries. Joe Ryan converted all three tries to cap off a man of the match performance.